Everyday Greatness:  Inspiration for  a Meaningful Life

By: By Stephen R. Covey and David K. Hatch

Like many of you, I have read Stephen Covey’s wildly popular book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  That book launched Covey to the top of the self help charts, and this book attempts to help readers once again, by inspring us to live with greatness.  I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers (http://brb.thomasnelson.com/,) as a book reviewing blogger.

Though Thomas Nelson is the book’s publisher, the book itself is not a “Christian” book that aims to center one around the source of greatness, Christ.  This book takes the route of every secular self-help book, and centers the reader around self.  The format of the book is innovative because it uses Readers Digest stories from famous and non-famous people alike to illustrate everyday greatness.  It also attempts to help the reader identify the various ways greatness is demonstrated.

The tales shared come from a wide range of people throughout history and with various racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. These personal tales of triumph were quite enjoyable for me to read since I enjoy biographies.  However, I did not necessarily enjoy how Covey and Hatch categorized the stories into universal truths such as Courage.   I do not recommend readers sit down with this book and read straight through it, but I do recommend keeping this book on the night stand along for the occasional read.